[Bobby dog]

Most stews are rip offs IMO, dog and cat. There are a few hearty canned dog recipes I have come across, haven’t really found any hearty cat stews yet.

Yes, I think Iams is new to the list. If I had any sense I would have saved previous versions of my grocery store foods in case I want to try them again. I am going to start doing that from now on. It will save me time in researching recipes to try if I can go directly to the brand and recipe then just review them to see if anything has changed.

Uh oh, I don’t want Aimee to get jealous! lol

[Pitlove]

bdog- ya I have seen pure balance at walmart. wasn’t really sure about the cat food. it comes in like that weird tub almost. i tried 4health GF and she barely touched it but my dog liked the grain inclusive 4health. I think i’m gonna try pure balance though. i’m starting to want to stay away from stews and just go for pates. thankfully both my cat and dog like pate. i agree that stews tend to be a whole lot of nothing for a high price.

ps have you tried the WEF canned food yet?

[Bobby dog]

pitlove:
Wellness, by Nature, and Red Barn are the only real hearty stews for dogs I have come across. But, I don’t normally look for stews, don’t know why. I like 4H and Pure Balance stews, they just aren’t as hearty as the others I mentioned. I don’t recommend the 4H GF for dogs, they are really, really high in fat. My cats don’t like 4H either, only my senior kitty liked the GF whitefish & chic.

If you haven’t tried Pure Balance canned for your dog, give it a try. The stews are a decent budget friendly food, $1/can. I feed the tubs too, they are about 70 cents each. I don’t feed or recommend the PB 95% due to the high fat %. I feed mostly the stews and throw in the tubs here and there. Here are DFA reviews for all three:
/dog-food-reviews/pure-balance-tubs/
/dog-food-reviews/pure-balance-dog-food-canned/
/dog-food-reviews/pure-balance-95-canned/

I have only tried the PB GF chicken pate’ and GF chic & turkey in gravy for cats. They didn’t like the chic and only my senior female liked the chic & turkey. It’s worth a try they are $1/tub. My Wal-Mart only carries one other salmon recipe; I try to stay away from larger fish species. I plan on trying the others whenever I get to another store.

I haven’t tried WEF yet. I am planning on it for both the dog and cat foods.

Another budget friendly canned dog food is Costco’s Nature’s Domain. You have to have a membership (or know someone who does). You have to buy it by the case, I think it’s a little over $20/case. C4C is the expert on all things Costco.
/dog-food-reviews/natures-domain-grain-free-canned/

I have a BJ’s membership and buy Berkley & Jenson chic dinner, 6 cans/$8.99.

[jakes mom]

Update…Dustin’s blood work wasn’t bad. Kidney and liver function good, do need to up his thyroid meds a bit, tho. I don’t like that he’s so thin. Doc says it’s partly due to age as well as the thyroid. Compared him to a 90 yo man and pointed out that you don’t see too many fat, very old people. Guess he’s got a point there. In any case, he seems to be pretty healthy and happy for an old guy. Still runs and plays and jumps over the baby (dog) gate with no problem. I’ll increase his meds and feed him at every opportunity and maybe he’ll gain a little.

[Pitlove]

bdog- I really like Wellness CORE pate cans. I’ve got a case of those and I do WEF stews for my dog as well. they are 1.99$ a can at work but i also get a discount for working there. got lucky and got 22 cans for a 1$ each at the feed store near me because they were going to stop caring the brand. thinking about giving WEF cat another try. i saw on a review that if the sauce in the pate has hardened into a geletin its not a bad thing and thats what my issue was with WEF the first time around, but for .99$ a can at work thats a good deal. unfortuneatly the only thing ive got access to is a Sams Club card and it’s not mine so i’m not sure I could use it to go check out the cat and dog food section without the card owner being there (no idea how those bulk stores work). i just got a variety pack of 12 of Tiki cat off chewy.com, however they are all fish. I think this is gonna be my last time getting her so much wet food with fish in it. normally she gets chicken, turkey, beef, duck, rabbit, things like that. i prefer to stay away from fish too. i stay away from fish for the most part with the dog too.

jakes mom- glad your boy is doing good! did the vet give you any tips to putting some weight on him or is that not really possible with the thyroid problem?

[Pitlove]

oh also was looking at Muse on PetSmarts website. The cans are going for 1$ each on there, not sure if that is the same price as in store as online tends to be cheaper. the broths are regularly 1.49$ on the site with a sale of 1$ right now. If that was the regular in store price that wouldn’t be terrible

[Bobby dog]

jakes mom:
Sounds like he’s okay and it was a good thing he had a check-up so you can adjust his med.

pitlove:
Bobby likes the Core and Complete health lines. Actually, that’s not really a fair review because he pretty much likes anything. Part of his rotation includes the Core weight mgt and CH Venison.
Not sure how Sam’s Club works. Check out their website, they have a nice one if I remember right.
Sounds like the Muse price is about the same as Beyond. I think Beyond might be a little over a $1 in my area. Haven’t bought it in a while.

[Pitlove]

wow so looks like Tiki Cat or at least the Tuna ones are a no go. my kitten threw up one of the tuna recipes this morning. And i’ve got 10 more cans that all have tuna in them that I can’t feed to her now. Wondering if it was the food or she cant tolerate tuna…

[crazy4cats]

Hi Jakes Mom!
I had to increase Rosie’s meds also and she has gained 1/2 pound since. The vet was very pleased. You mean when I’m 90, I may finally get to be skinny? Ha Ha!

Pitlove-
It’s so hard to say if it is the food or the tuna. I buy Tiki shredded turkey and duck VERY occasionally and my cats do fine on it. Unfortunately, you will probably have to give it another try before you can make a determination. Sometimes it can be due to something else they have eaten or gotten in to. Speaking of….How is the new litter going now? I remember you mentioning it on another thread.

[Pitlove]

C4C- dani (my kitten) is my champion eater. This is only her second time ever throwing up period. The other time was right after the Nature’s Variety Beef Formula and I totally knew I shouldnt have given it to her. It looked horrible. Probably a bad batch of the beef as i had no issues with the rabbit chicken or duck. You could definitely be right but since I know that she has a strong stomach and can tolerate anything I feel its the food/tuna. I was questioning whether or not to buy it in the first place since it was an all fish variety pack. I would like to maybe try tuna again, but i also don’t want to feel like im experimenting with her stomach. maybe a recipe where tuna is like…third on the list? and if she handles it then maybe it was a bad batch of the Tiki Cat.

edit: oh and i forgot to that the first time she threw up in was like she ate and then within a minute threw up.

The litter is great as far as i’m concerned. It clumps really really well, better than any other litter i’ve used and she has stopped playing in it! yay!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Pitlove.

[jakes mom]

Thanks, guys. I was pretty pleased with his results. Considering all that could be wrong with a 20yo cat he’s doing pretty well. I always worry about his kidneys and give him as much liquid as I can. I make his FD Primal with more water that the instructions say, he likes it that way, drinks up all his juice then eats the food. I don’t know of any ways to increase his weight other than feeding as much as possible and extra high calorie stuff like coconut oil. He loves that and it’s about 120 calories per tablespoon.
I saw Muse at Petsmart tonite. Didn’t look too closely, but the 3oz. cans are $1.09, currently on sale for $1. I just ran in quickly for litter, might check it out another day. One of the cats had a reaction (yucky ear) when she ate some Beyond dry so I’m not sure if I want to try the Muse.

[crazy4cats]

Jakes Mom-
Sounds like your 20yo cat is doing great! I add water to my old gal’s food too. She really likes it also. Sometimes I try to sneak her more food, but I always get caught!
None of my other cats need anymore food.

I tried some g/f WEF chicken pate this afternoon. They were all just kind of ok with it. The food looked good though. I’ll try another can in a couple of days to see if second time, they like it even better.

[Pitlove]

im gonna give WEF another try when its time to get more cat food. i think i misjudged the quality of the food

[crazy4cats]

I bought a can of Natural Balamce Wild Pursuit canned chicken, turkey and quail canned cat food today. I’ve never seen this line of NB before. I think it must be pretty new. Has anyone tried it? I hope my crew likes it!

[Bobby dog]

I was checking it out the other day. I would like to try it, hopefully one of my pet stores will start stocking it.

[Pitlove]

not sure how it works by you guys, but my store (Petco) where I work just did their reset on all the dog food and introduced a few new lines including Wild Pursuit for dogs. The cat food reset is going to be done in June at our store and in our district. I think they will introduce cat Wild Pursuit then unless they have extra shelf space.

It is brand new and replaced their old Alpha Dog/Cat line

bdog- ask if they have it in the warehouse. I know my store does. ask if you could try some cans even though its not on the shelf

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Pitlove.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Pitlove.

[Bobby dog]

pitlove:
Do stores keep these resets secret, are they advertised, or can you ask about them? I was going to check out a Petco in my area around this time because people were talking about it last year. Just don’t know when they do it in my area and it would be helpful if I could call and ask about it.

[Pitlove]

bdog- no not really secret per se but they aren’t advertized. I would assume you could ask the store about it. I would call and at least ask when Wild Pursuit would be avaible. as far as i know there are no other new cat foods that are going to be introduced just Wild Pursuit.

[Pitlove]

on another note. Iams purrfect delights isn’t too bad. I got a can for my kitten after reading over the ingredients and she did well on it. thinking about getting the variety pack at walmart. its the only line without by-products in it

[Bobby dog]

pitlove:
I will give them a call and see what they say; never hurts to ask. And knowing they are introducing a new food that coincides with a reset is nice to know if they won’t confirm a reset date. Thanks for the info!!!!

My cats do well on and like a few of their pate’s. It’s one of the foods that I can pretty much be assured they will eat if I can’t get them to eat anything else.

[Pitlove]

bdog- no problem. ill be happy to share any insider info i get as we tend to get the new lines before a lot of people know about them. its pretty nice 😀

I was pleased with Iams. Never thought much of them but the purrfect delights line seems decent enough to me. I’m happy with no anonymous meat by-products.

[crazy4cats]

BDawg-
I bought the Wild Pursuit at our local yuppie feed store. Haven’t tried it yet, though. Btw, neither have my cats! Lol!

[Bobby dog]

C4C:
I’ll leave the taste testing of pet foods up to my zoo and a few of the other DFA regulars. I forget who specifically, but I remember one or two of them have tasted some pet foods before!

[crazy4cats]

Oh yes, BDawg, one of them was me! I have tried myself some Freshpet!! It looks much better than it tastes.

[Bobby dog]

Very nice to have a pet parent endorsement!! I couldn’t remember who, but I knew someone has dined on some pet food on DFA.

[crazy4cats]

It was when the big debate over Freshpet having too much salt. It did not taste salty to me. I’m pretty sure it was Losul who also ate dog food. I can’t remember what for sure though.

[Bobby dog]

Did it make your coat I mean hair soft & shiny? Lol

I remember that debate now. I think HDM’s post is at the top of the Fresh Pet thread it took place on explaining the sodium content is well within recommended levels.

[crazy4cats]

Haha! If it did that, I would continue to eat it! My hair seems to be getting thinner these days. 😓

[crazy4cats]

Well, the Natural Balance wild pursuit was a TOTAL flop. Only one out of four cats would even try it. They are stinkers!

On a funny note, my husband and I are on “stay cation” this week. He’s outside doing yard work and hears a kitty. While ours are all indoor cats, he takes a peek to see who is talking to him. He finally looks up to find our sweet little chubby girl looking down at him from our roof! He quickly runs upstairs, finds a window open and crawls out on the roof to “save” her. Lol! And then around walks around to see another one of our cats on the very top layer of our tri-level house. Surprisingly enough, the more energetic male named Beans actually came to my husband so he could be saved also!

They had quite an adventure for a couple of indoor kitties who have never really been outside. Who knows if they would have eventually jumped off if we weren’t home. Needless to say, we are getting the screen repaired!

[Pitlove]

C4C- Wow sorry to hear that Wild Pursuit didnt work out! I havent tried it, but then again Im not a Natural Balance fan.

Sounds like you got more than you bargained for on your stay-cation tho 😀 glad the kitties are ok and got a little adventure too!

On another note, I decided after listening to an interview with Dr. Pierson to try feeding Fancy Feast. She made some really good points about by-products with cat food and so far so good. my kitten likes it of course and no bad poop or anything! and i do love that its cheap

[crazy4cats]

Oh no, you went with the kitty crack! Lol! It is easier on the budget, but sometimes they won’t eat anything else once they taste that stuff! I’m not a real big fan of Natural Balance either, but always trying to find something a little bit better in addition to the FF and Friskies that they will ALL eat. Especially my males who are more prone to urinary tract issues.

Oh, my roof cats are fine. They would have liked to stay out longer. We have too many coyotes in my area to risk it though. I’ve lost one cat to them and my heart is half broke over it. It would totally break in two if it happened again! 😪

[Pitlove]

i know right! lucky for me EVERY food is kitty crack to her. Since eating the fancy feast she has not refused any other food thank god. She had a can of Merrick Turkey pate today and went just as nuts for it as always. i really got lucky with her. no dry food addiction and she will eat anything i put in front of her. I am the exact same way with trying to balance the quality of the foods both my cat and dog eat. I’m doing the Iams purrfect delights, max cat, WEF and FF as my budget foods, but I still always cant help but get her a few cans of regular Merrick, Nature’s Variety etc as a way to still have a higher quality food in her diet. name with my dog too. plus with the budget foods it allows me to a feed a higher quality kibble to my dog since unfortunely i do have to feed kibble.

ya i totally understand. we dont have much wildlife like that here but i would hate for her to run off. I bring her outside on her harness sometimes but she hates it lol!

[crazy4cats]

I’ve thought about the harness idea, but I have four of them I’d have to harness up! Well, actually three. I wouldn’t have to worry about my senior kitty. She’s already sowed her wild oats! Yes, mine will eat many of the Nutro Max canned foods as well. They especially like the duck chunks in sauce recipe. And it doesn’t make Rosie throw up even though it has sauce. Bonus!!!

[Pitlove]

i was so surprised by the Max. Dani ended up with diaherra from the Nutro Natural Choice, so I’ve stopped feeding that but she does good on the Max. and anything under a $1 a can makes me happy budget wise.

I was so surprised that Dani didnt like being outside on the harness as she was actually living with a feral colony and her mother is feral before I adopted her. I thought she might have a desire for the outside so I made sure to get her microchipped and she wears a collar at all times (something ive never done with any other cat) but she honestly doesnt care for the outside at all. and she is fixed since they did it when they trapped her. thats when they also found out she was not feral at all! now sadly she has half her ear missing though.

my girl 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Pitlove.

[crazy4cats]

She is beautiful! Those big eyes are awesome.

[Pitlove]

thank you! She is very sweet. such the lap cat, but i worry she has seperation anxiety. not sure though.

also on a side note. im thinking about going raw with her and i looked into darwin’s. i was really annoyed to find out that they basically make up an order for you and you are forced into buying chicken duck and turkey from them all in one order and you don’t get to decide how many lbs you want or what protein you want and you HAVE to do auto-ship. I wanted to just try it out with her to see if she would eat it and that makes it impossible to do.
C4C idk if you know of any good commercial raw diets similar to darwin’s that doesnt do that.

if anyone else has suggestions to i’d like to hear it. im also wondering if feeding her raw since she doesnt eat much would be more cost effective than canned food.

[jakes mom]

Maybe I misunderstood your question or I misunderstood Darwin’s when I ordered last week. I ordered the $14.95 sample pack. It has all 3 proteins but wouldn’t you want that in a sample pack? They do set you up for autoship for future orders but you can cancel if she doesn’t like it, or change the timing of shipments anytime. There are also meal mixes you can get from several companies, just add to your own ground meat. Also Hare today and My pet carnivore are other raw companies a lot of people here use.
C4C, so glad you got your escapees without any problems!

[crazy4cats]

Jakes Mom-
Yes, my cats are fine. Thank you for your concern. I always worry about them getting out! It was actually kind of funny because it reminded us of the time when our previous dog went out a window on to the roof years ago. My husband came home and no one was home and our dog was on the roof in a panic. It was when my kids were young and we went up to the school to play without him and he was NOT happy about it. I guess he thought he was going to follow us anyway he could. He thankfully, he didn’t jump either! He would have gotten hurt. I think the cats could probably handle the jump without an issue. Just glad they didn’t!

Have you tried the Darwin’s yet? I’m real curious to see if they like it.

Pitlove-
I have used NW Naturals, Nature’s Variety, and Primal raw as toppers for my dogs. I have tried feeding a little to my cats here and there and they have not been interested so far. Most likely if it was in one of the dogs’ bowls, however, they would probably eat it right up! LOL! It might actually be cheaper for you. Canned cat food is way too expensive for what you get. Let us know if you try it out.

[jakes mom]

Have not rec’d it yet, they ship to my area on weds, so should arrive on Friday. I’ll be sure to keep you updated. Hoping at least somebody will like it.
BTW, sad to say I lost one of my kitties last week. Renal failure. He was my youngest kitty, 14yo. But the rest of my geriatric ward just keep chugging along. My 20yo got a clean bill of health ( except for the thyroid issue ) last month. Kidney, liver functions all fine.

[crazy4cats]

Oh, I’m sorry, Jakes Mom. And your youngest at that. You and the rest of your crew probably miss him a lot! Take Care.

[Bobby dog]

Hi jakesmom:
So sorry for your loss, take care of yourself and your furries.

[jakes mom]

thanks guys. It’s been tough, we all miss Teddy. It helps a bit to have other furries in the house, tho. Can’t imagine losing an “only”. How empty the house would be!

[Pitlove]

jakes mom – two things. im so sorry for your loss. i lost my 6yr old cat on christmas eve last year. no clue why he died. hence why we have the new kitten now. glad you and your crew are doing ok tho!

also yeah i don’t mind the trial shipment but what my problem was is lets say she doesnt like the duck but she loves the chicken and turkey, i dont have the option to only get those 2 proteins. and maybe im wrong but when i clicked on turkey to buy it and see how much shipping was i got brought to the page telling me about the starter thing and then how in 13 weeks my regular order would ship of all 3 proteins, with a set amount of lbs. I see that I can change it, but you have to change it before the order is shipped and it would kind of be a hassle for me. i COULD be misunderstanding the idea of the site. I just don’t like sites that force me to autoship OR make me cancel it every single time. in my mind its the same as whenever you sign up for a free trail of some service lets say Amazon Prime and they say after a month they are going to start charging you for it unless you cancel it. I hate having to remind myself to cancel the subscription before i get charged. also ive experienced canceling things like that and then still getting charged and i would not want that on a 100$+ order of raw food.

you have ordered food from them so please let me know if im confused or wrong about their ordering process! i really like the look of the food and would love to try it

[jakes mom]

Pitlove, I see what you mean, I went back on the Darwin’s site. The autoship doesn’t bother me that much. They will email a few days before they ship and I check emails every nite so it’s no problem for me to change or delay a shipment. I did shoot them an email asking about the availability of single proteins instead of the combos but have not heard back from them (just sent it last nite). I’ll let you know when I hear back.
I rec’d the food tonite. I have a couple of packages in the fridge, thawing. It’s packed very well, with a little dry ice. Everything was rock hard when it arrived. One thing you may not like is, they ask you to return the cooler box. Give you a return label so it doesn’t cost anything but may be inconvenient if you’re not near a UPS store.
I had another thought for you, too. Have you tried freeze dried raw? ( Sorry if you mentioned that in a previous post) I use Primal nuggets sometimes. Comes in a bag with chunks that you just crumble with your fingers and add a little hot water. Very convenient, and you could customize it for her with a bit more or less water depending on her preference. Look for it with the higher quality dry food, not in the fridge/freezer with the other raw products, also online, got mine at Chewy’s. Various flavors and bag sizes.
I’ll try feeding the kitties this weekend, when the stuff thaws. Wish me luck!

[Pitlove]

Jake’s Mom, thanks for the extra info. I had no idea you had to send the cooler back. I was under the impression that they let you keep it. I really don’t like that, which upsets me because I really really wanted to try Darwins. I check my emails nightly as well after work so it wouldnt be a problem for me to change the orders I just don’t want to get caught off guard.

I have a great little family owned pet store about 30 mins from me that I often by my dogs kibble at since they carrying Orijen and other really great natural brands. They also carry the Primal Raw food, so I can definitely look into that. They also carry Stella & Chewys.

Let me know how the Darwin’s goes! I really wish they made their ordering process more straight forward and streamline and allowed you to tailor your order every time.

[jakes mom]

I don’t know that you HAVE to send the cooler back. They give you a return label and a spiel about helping them be environmentally responsible. You can also leave it for the UPS guy to take next time he delivers.
Have you tried giving her some ground meat from the grocery store? Just to see what she thinks about the idea, the texture? My guys like it plain, but I tried one of the supplement mixes and nobody would eat it. However, the mix smelled kind of like dry soup mix, so maybe it was too strong a flavor for the cats. Just remember if you decide to try some ground meat from the store, pork needs to be frozen for at least a couple of weeks to kill any parasites. Beef or poultry you can feed right away.

[Pitlove]

No I havent thought about doing that. She is already on an all canned diet and will eat any type of canned food be it pate, chunks in sauce, the human looking soup of Weruva, you name it she eats it. I felt like getting her on raw would be easy cuz of that. Also I’m thinking theres a chance it could be cheaper for me than feeding canned, even though she can only finish one 3oz can at each meal (dog and cat both eat twice daily about every 12 hours or so). I know you typically feed less with raw which is a bonus for me.

[jakes mom]

Yes, you only feed about 2-3% of kitty’s weight per day on raw. My guys aren’t as easy as yours, they only like the pate type canned food. Just lick the gravy/sauce from the other kind and leave the bits.
Stuff is starting to thaw a bit. Will be able to try it tonite, I feed 2x a day, too.

[jakes mom]

Pitlove, I heard from Darwin’s customer service. They set up the autoship with the combo proteins because it’s best for the cats to eat a variety of proteins. However, if you want a particular thing you can call or email and they’ll send whatever you want.
So far none of the cats seem thrilled with their new addition to dinner. I’ll keep offering it and see what happens. I suspect they may not be happy with the fact that it’s cold, as well as a new thing.

[Pitlove]

Ya and I totally agree with their logic. I do agree that they should get different proteins and she already gets that with the canned. Im still going to think about it and definitely going to get the starter “pack” to see if she will even eat raw. So far Darwins is the company I’m most impressed with.

Sorry to hear that! Hopefully they will adjust to it. Do they get all canned as well or some dry and canned?

[Author]

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